Diane Abbott - the woman Corbyn trusts to protect Britain from terrorists - embarrasses herself in new car crash interview where she stumbled over basic details of anti-terror policy (then BACKS OUT of another interview blaming 'illness')

The shadow home secretary was left floundering on Sky News over Harris report

Abbott was asked about recommendations into beefing up security in the capital

But she was unable to identify a single one of the report's 127 recommendations

Abbott backed out of radio interview this morning in the wake of the meltdown

Diane Abbott backed out of a radio interview today after being 'taken ill' in the wake of another TV meltdown.

The shadow home secretary was left floundering on Sky News when she was asked to discuss the Harris Report, released last October, which made several recommendations on beefing up security in the capital.

But after being questioned by Dermot Murnaghan on specific aspects of the report a desperate Ms Abbott was unable to come up with answers and even had to be corrected by the interviewer.

She was due to appear on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour today for a debate with Home Secretary Amber Rudd.

But less than half an hour before the programme was due to begin producers said they had been informed she was 'ill'. The close Corbyn ally appears to have made it to within striking distance of the BBC studios, with a photograph posted on Twitter purporting to show her on her phone at Oxford Circus Tube station at 8.40am.

The episode will draw comparisons with Ms Abbott's failure to make the historic Article 50 vote in February. Labour colleagues accused her of 'bottling' the vote after she claimed to have suffered a 'migraine' despite being at the Commons all day.

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry filled in for her colleague on Woman's Hour this morning, but was forced to admit she did not have some figures to hand because it was 'slightly last minute me coming here'. At one point she admitted to rooting around and finding notes 'in the bottom of my handbag'.

Despite Ms Abbott's shambolic performance, Labour supporters including singer Lily Allen claimed that criticism of her was down to 'racist sexist abuse'.

In a toe-curling showing last night punctuated by long pauses, Ms Abbott claimed she had read the report produced by former Metropolitan Police Authority chairman Lord Toby Harris in October last year.

In an effort to get back on the front foot, Mrs May used a campaign speech in Slough last night to signal a significant gear change in her response.

She said: "When I stood on the steps of Downing Street after the London attack I said enough is enough and things have got to change.

"We need to take on the ideology that unites and motivates the perpetrators of these attacks."

Above and beyond that, she said: “We should do even more to restrict the freedom and the movements of terrorist suspects when we have enough evidence to know they present a threat, but not enough evidence to prosecute them in full in court.